FLO TV

AT&T has announced it will buy Qualcomm's FLO TV spectrum, with the lower 700MHz band being earmarked for the carrier's future 4G ambitions. In a deal worth $1.925bn, AT&T will eventually use carrier aggregation technology developed by Qualcomm for its new mobile chipsets that will see the 700MHz bands used to boost 4G downlink speeds.

Qualcomm has announced it will offer a partial rebate to those who have bought FLO TV devices and service plans for its digital TV service, ahead of the official shut-down on March 27 2011. According to the FLO TV rebate page, submitting a claim will automatically end your service plan with the company, with the device going dead within 72hrs.

Join us in shedding an ironic half-tear for FLO TV, Qualcomm's little-loved streaming TV service, which according to PaidContent will be axing its direct-to-consumers service by the end of the year. Their sources say that staff in the MediaFLO division were informed of the decision late last week, and that Qualcomm is currently in talks with AT&T and Verizon over the white-label services they offer each carrier.

Audiovox has been offering its line of Flo TV gear for cars for a long time now. The Flo TV service is a mobile TV offering that puts some of the most popular kid's shows and other content onto small screens in the car for people to watch on the go. When the systems first launched the price was in the $399 range before installation.

It's fair to say we've never been huge fans of Qualcomm's MediaFLO system, the company's broadcast TV technology which aims to rival data-based IPTV services to mobile devices. Now, though, it seems Qualcomm has finally come up with a decent application for MediaFLO: at their IQ 2010 event in London this morning, the company revealed they're now looking at using MediaFLO for data-casting, offloading regular network traffic and reducing congestion.

Back in January around the time CES was underway we caught word that Audiovox would be bringing a new portable DVD player to market that packed in FLO TV service. We didn't hear much else about the machine until now. Audiovox has now announced the launch of that system.

Qualcomm may still be storming ahead with their Snapdragon mobile chipsets and wireless modules, but poor old FLO TV isn't bringing home the bacon. The mobile TV service - which hasn't won much in the way of industry admiration - is struggling to gain traction, and Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs has admitted that the company is in early discussions with others with regards a potential sale.

Honestly, it might be too late to save mobile TV, at least in the U.S., where the broadcast network for mobile devices has yet to catch on like it has in Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea. The competition is fierce, and growing almost daily, and mobile broadcast TV service offers few benefits over its competitors.

Ever felt like you needed TV while you were on the go? After all, you've got pretty much everything else right there in the palm of your hand, so why not the stuff that gets streamed to that big ol' TV set in your living room? While there are all sorts of ways for you to do this, FLO TV might be the best way to get it done. And now, with some additional features heading down the pipe, it looks like they are getting a lot better.

We already knew that mophie and Qualcomm had joined forces to produce the mophie Juice Pack FLO TV edition, giving iPhone and iPod touch owners a way to not only recharge their handsets but watch live mobile TV on them too. However Qualcomm have now announced that Audiovox - who already offer FLO TV functionality in some of their installed ICE systems - will be launching a new portable DVD player with integrated FLO TV later in 2010. The chipset manufacturer also announced new content for the service.